Sydney's clash with Collingwood at the SCG is important enough in its own right, the Swans desperately trying to recover their top-four spot, the Magpies struggling to stay in contention for the eight.

But it's also a bit of a nostalgia trip, for the Pies particularly. Collingwood, arguably Australian football's most famous club, hasn't graced the SCG for more than 15 years, since round four of the 2000 season.

It's not exactly Collingwood and Carlton back at Victoria Park, but in the 21st century, which had only just begun when this fixture was last scheduled, it's about as retro as  football gets.

To give you a bit of context, consider this. When these sides last met at the SCG, the youngest member of Collingwood's team for this clash, Jordan De Goey, had turned four only a couple of weeks previously. Neither were four-year-old Darcy Moore or Jonathon Marsh yet old enough to attend school.

Not too surprisingly, just one of the 44 players who took part in the game is still playing today. That, of course, is Adam Goodes. The round four 2000 clash was Goodes' 24th senior game. Friday night's will be his 367th.

Flicking through the details of the game is like a walk through a football history lesson, and in some cases a dip into the "where are they now" files.

Collingwood's line-up included names such as Andrew Ukovic, Mark Orchard and Damien Adkins. Younger fans probably know Ryan Fitzgerald only as a former  Big Brother contestant and a radio host, but in 2000 he was a promising Sydney key forward.

The previous year, when the Pies played at the SCG, they'd been on the wrong end of history, as Sydney spearhead Tony Lockett booted his 1300th goal to break their own Gordon Coventry's long-time goalkicking record.

But 2000 was a happier occasion. Despite Collingwood having just come off their first wooden spoon and the Swans having been a finalist, under first-year coach Mick Malthouse (there's another glimpse of how long ago this was), the Pies won a thriller by  five points.

There was controversy close to the finish when a shot from Sydney's Wayne Schwass appeared to have gone through for a goal but, after a consultation between umpires, was deemed a point.

Post-game, both Malthouse and Swans' coach Rodney Eade called for the AFL to introduce a video review system. Which, of course, it would … just 12 years later!

There was irony, too, in the dramatic finale, former Swans Paul Licuria and Anthony Rocca combining for Rocca's match-winning goal, just 16 seconds before the siren. It was Collingwood's fourth win on end, which became five the following week before they collapsed in a heap, losing 15 of their last 17 games to finish second last.

Since then, the Magpies' away clashes with Sydney have been played exclusively at ANZ Stadium. And the Pies might be about the only club lamenting the end of the AFL's contract with that ground at the end of next year, given their record there.

Collingwood have won 10 out of their 13 games at the Olympic Stadium, the foundation of their latter-day dominance over the Swans, against whom they've now won 13 of the past 15 meetings.

But the Pies have plenty of SCG history, too. They played there for premiership points back in 1903, and again in 1952, and also took on the Swans there when they were still South Melbourne in 1981, the year before an entire club packed up and headed north.

None of which means a lot to some young Pies unaccustomed to one of Australian sport's most famous venues. "There's not going to be a lot of space, so I think it's going to be a really hard, tough game, and that's something we're looking forward to digging into," Pies coach Nathan Buckley said on Wednesday.

The Pies might this week have enjoyed digging into the past, too, Fox Footy the other night screening that clash from 2000.

Buckley, however, would only had to have glimpsed his 27-year-old frame cruising around the SCG on his way to 28 disposals to know that as far as lessons go, this is one occasion on which "last time they met here" isn't so much a preparation tool as a piece of  football history.